Improved floor-cloth



NITED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL HAWKSWORTH, OF DONOASTER, ENGLAND.

IMPROVED FLOOR-CLOTH.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL HAWKSWORTH, of Doncaster, in the county of York, in England, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Floor-Cloth; and I, the said SAMUEL HAWKS- WORTH, do hereby declare the nature of the said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say- This invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of floor-cloth. For this purpose wool or other fibrous material is taken and passed through a carding engine, and the loose sheets which comefrom the carding-engine are laid one on the other until a snlficient thickness is obtained. The accumulated sheets offiber are then consolidated with a cementing composition, which is applied evenly all over the uppermost sheet, and this is conveniently done with an india-rubber roller, to which the composition (which is rendered sufficiently fluid by heat) is applied in a similar manner to that in which a roller is employed by printers in spreading their ink.

The cementing composition is conveniently prepared by mixing together one pound of beeswax, one pound of glue, two pounds of Venice turpentine, and one gallon of strong boiled linseed-oil. The solid materials are melted by heat, and the whole well stirred together.

The fabric prepared in the manner above described forms the base of the floorcloth,

and is to receive asurfacin g material produced and applied in the following manner:

Linseed-oil is taken and boiled slowly or simmered in a close vessel or boiler for some days with a small proportion of litharge and Burgundy pitch until they become of a consistency somewhat similar in fluidity to tar. This compound is then placed in a masticator or mixing-machine and combined with suitable coloring matters, earths, or pigments, so as to produce any desired color, and such coloring-matters may be so employed and mixed as to imitate marbles or stones when rolled out into sheets. It is preferred to employ at the rate of about a quarter of a pound of litharge to each gallon of oil. This mixture is caused to simmer orboil slowly for about three days, when about two pounds of Burgundy pitch is added to each gallon of the oil in the previous mixture, the pitch being in a boiling state. These materials, being well mixed, are allowed to simmer for about half an hour. The mixture is kept for some days and then used. It is rolled out into sheets between paper, calico, or other fabric suitably prepared with size or otherwise, to prevent it absorbing the oil of the plastic compound. One of the surfaces of paper or other fabric is then to be removed or stripped off from the sheet of compound, and the sheet is then to be out into any desired forms or devices or parts of devices. Pieces of various colors prepared in this manner are brought together so as to make up a mosaic pattern, and they are caused to adhere to the base fabric, the cementing composition therein being still tacky. The surfaces from which the paper has been stripped are applied to the surface of the base fabric. The whole is passed between pressing-rollers or otherwise consolidated by pressure, and by this means the surface-pieces are firmly attached to the base fabric. The second surface of the paper or other fabricused when making a sheet of the surfacing material is stripped oft after the pieces have been made to adhere.

Varied patterns may be produced, according to the forms and devices into which such sheets are cut and the various colors which are used in composing a surface.

In a similar manner a plain floor-cloth may be made, or the floor-cloth may be embossed by passing it between suitable rollers properly engraved.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The new manufacture of floor cloth herein described, composed of a base fabric of 0011- solidated fibrous material and of a surfacing material combined, substantially as set forth.

SAMUEL HAWKSWORTH. Witnesses:

THos. BROWN, JOHN DEAN,

Both of 17 Graccchmch Street, London. 

